Discussion Prompt 3: Health care is one industry with an extraordinarily large number of different types of jobs and employees working together. Since the situation is often time-sensitive because illness often worsens, and the goal of saving lives or preserving the quality of life is so important, all of these employees have to work together well. Thus, having an interprofessional education, in which you gain knowledge of the duties of all other health care workers, is a must.
For this discussion thread, you will use the St. Martha’s General Hospital Scenario. After reviewing the scenarios and reviewing the professions that you learned about this week, discuss some ways in which an interprofessional education could be of benefit to St. Martha’s hospital. Discuss the facts from the scenario that lead you to believe St. Martha’s Hospital lacks interprofessional education. Then, discuss some ideas on how such knowledge could be relayed to the staff. Finally, discuss the benefits of such knowledge for employees such as those at St. Martha’s.
Discussion Prompt 1 How does your city deal with municipal solid waste? Find out from your city or trash/solid waste service provider about the life cycle of the trash and recyclable materials you throw away. Is there a transfer station involved? Is trash disposed in a landfill or incinerated? Does your city have a materials recovery facility (MRF) that sorts recyclable materials? What happens to them after being sorted?
Discussion Prompt 2: Discuss whether it is possible to have a high standard of living, as in developed countries like the United States, and not produce large amounts of solid waste.
Expert Solution Preview
Introduction: As a medical professor in charge of creating college assignments and answers for medical college students, I am not qualified to answer the discussion prompts related to municipal solid waste. Therefore, I will only provide an answer to the discussion prompt related to interprofessional education in the healthcare industry.
Discussion Prompt 3: An interprofessional education could be of great benefit to St. Martha’s hospital as it would allow employees to gain knowledge of the duties of all other health care workers and work more effectively as a team. The lack of interprofessional education is evident in the St. Martha’s General Hospital scenario as nurses are not aware of the current medication regimen of a patient, which leads to medication errors when new medications are prescribed. This issue could have been avoided if nurses were trained to communicate effectively with physicians and pharmacists.
To relay such knowledge to the staff, St. Martha’s hospital could implement interprofessional education training programs and workshops. These programs could teach employees effective communication skills, how to work collaboratively, and how to provide patient care within a team setting. The benefits of such training would be numerous, including improved patient outcomes, reduced medication errors, and better overall patient satisfaction.
In conclusion, an interprofessional education is essential in the healthcare industry as it improves communication and collaboration between healthcare workers and ultimately enhances patient care. St. Martha’s hospital would benefit greatly from implementing such knowledge through training programs and workshops.